It's Wednesday, and the St. Louis Rams decision to start their week 5 game against Detroit with an onside kick should be dead and buried by now. But I just can't let it go without one more comment.
You'll recall that the Chiefs also opened their week 5 game with an onside kick, also unsuccessful. Here's what Peter King said about that:
I don't care if it didn't work. I liked the Chiefs' onside-kick on the first play of the game at Indy. You won't beat the Colts without taking some chances.
That may very well be the case. The Colts won that game, and I suspect were heavily favored going into it. The Rams made the same call, against the Detroit Lions, an 0-4 team that the Rams should have been able to compete against using the same formula that beat Washington and Seattle. Things didn't quite work out that way.
ESPN's Mike Sando also brings up that fateful onside kick to remind readers that Steve Spagnuolo put himself on the hot seat with the Rams' blowout loss to the Lions this week.
Spagnuolo justified the onside kick to get his team off to an aggressive start on the road. Unfortunately, adversity dogpiled the Rams after that kick when they lost Mark Clayton and fumbled a catch inside the 10-yard line. Any hint of aggressiveness was gone after that series. The offense dried up and the defense got away from the creative blitz packages even when five Detroit blockers were able to contain the Rams' front four.
The best way to make people forget would be a win this week.